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Jane Rooking

Joseph Musgrove is my great grandfather. He was born on 1 December 1866 in Kendal, Westmorland, to parents Harrison Musgrove and Jane Rooking.

Joseph was the youngest of eight children. He was baptised on 21 April 1867 in Kendal. Less than a year later his father (Harrison) died on 16 April 1868. Then when Joseph was six years old his mother (Jane) died on 12 April 1873.

I guess that Joseph would have been looked after by his older siblings after the death of their parents. And in the 1881 census he is boarding with his eldest sister Agnes and her husband David Hutchinson at Albert Hill in Settle, West Yorkshire.

By the time of the next census on 5 April 1891 Joseph was back in Westmorland working as an agricultural labourer and living on a farm in Duke Street, Holme – about 10 miles south of Kendal.

Just over two years later Joseph married Elizabeth Ann Turner on 12 April 1893 at Settle Register Office.

Not sure what it is about the month of April but all the previous significant events happened in that month!!!

Anyway, Joseph and Elizabeth journeyed south to Clitheroe in Lancashire – stopping off on their way for three or four years at Horton in Ribblesdale, West Yorkshire, where Joseph worked in the limestone quarry. Their first three children were born and baptised here.

At this time the family lived at Foredale Cottages – in the photograph below you can see the cottages on the hillside below the quarry.

In the 1901 and 1911 census returns Joseph is still working as a limestone quarryman – now at the local Clitheroe quarry.

Over a period of about 20 years Joseph and Elizabeth had ten children:-

Sadly Joseph developed stomach cancer and he died at home on 30 September 1933. He was buried at Clitheroe Cemetery on 4 October 1933.

The archives for the Clitheroe Advertiser & Times have recently been added to the British Newspaper Archives website. I just discovered the following obituary.

A further death we have to record is that of Mr Joseph Musgrove, of 28 Russell Street. Mr Musgrove, who was sixty-six years of age, died on Sunday after a brief illness. Since the war Mr Musgrove had carried on business as a general dealer and was particularly well known among the farming community, his business bringing him into contact with farmers at the Clitheroe Auction Mart. A native of Kendal he had lived in Clitheroe for forty years, and for more than twenty years resided in Salford. At one period he was employed as a quarryman at Bold Venture Quarries. He leaves a widow, three sons and five daughters. The interment took place at St Mary’s Cemetery on Wednesday, the Rev S E Harper officiating.

Harrison Musgrove is my great grand uncle. His parents are Harrison Musgrove and Jane Rooking (my 2x great grandparents).

Harrison was born on 29 May 1858 in Kendal, Westmorland. He remained in Kendal until sometime in the mid 1880’s. On the 1871 census at the age of 12 his occupation is given as “tobacconist” and in 1881 he was working as a “farm servant indoors”.

Sometime in Q2 1883 Harrison married Jane Harrison in Kendal. As far as I can tell Harrison and Jane had at least six children:-

In the 1891 census the family were living near Horton in Ribblesdale and Harrison was working as a “general labourer”. By 1901 they had moved to Holme, Lancashire and Harrison was now a “limestone quarryman”.

The family continued their regular travels and in 1911 they were living in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Harrison was employed as a “quarryman”.

I have today found the following article from the Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer of 15 July 1911.

DEATHS FROM HEAT

A farm labourer, named Harrison Musgrove, aged 45 years, died from the effects of the intense heat on Thursday, at Burton-in-Lonsdale, four miles from Ingleton. Dr Troughton was able to certify that death was due to heat apoplexy. Musgrove hailed from Jubilee Street, Halifax, where his wife is now living.